Well to address your first point - I understand the frustration based around being sold the same vision and continued failure. However, in fairness to the club Ivan was the perfect candidate and if it wasn't for his undiscovered lack of integrity he could've been the guy to turn this club around. We were winning games and competing every week and it would've worked long term. However, he left us high and dry with 3 of arguably the clubs worst ever contracts in history to crawl back to Penrith. That's not on the board that's on Ivan.
Unfortunately, those 3 terrible contracts were long term and transitioned into Madge's tenure. Having Packer, Reynolds and Mbye combine for around $2.6 million dollars and at one point all become unplayable derailed everything and it dug us into a hole in which thankfully Madge had eventually dug us out of. However, because of this results dipped and Madge was struggling to recruit players when we had finally become financially capable of making an impact in free agency. The club making the call on hiring Madge at that time was the right decision - he was a former premiership wining coach who was a no nonsense type and pretty much got rid of the junk. Madge isn't the most marketable coach but his methods work and his success is usually what sold players to join him - when you take the success away from Madge it took away his appeal from players to want to play for him. He pretty much just cleaned up Ivan's mess and helped install a very very successful junior nursery that I think we will all be thanking him for in the next 5 years. So on-field wise yes it wasn't a great period but overall Madge had done some good things as well that has been overlooked.
Benji has now been handed the keys to a successful junior system (arguably one of the best in the league), a mentor with the experience and pedigree in Sheens and has now been given a fresh clean salary cap. Early signs aren't as negative as previously mentioned. Recruitment wise we've attracted some serious talent Api, Papalili, Bateman, Klemmer, Sullivan, Seizer, Fainu brothers and doesn't seem like we're slowing down. All reports are that the culture is shifting and players are buying into the vision Benji is setting. Lately when we've finally had capable halves pairing we've been performing strongly even against the top teams so there's something to take away and build on. Another pre-season with the same team with fresh exciting halves and continued training with Benji in sole control will improve us I believe. I think this is the time we finally start to shift into a strong club but maybe we don't that's Rugby league.
Those first 7 games were due to chemistry issues and players learning to play with each other - I think Matty Johns said it well on his podcast with Cronk. We started to get to a period after those 7 games where our attack was clicking and players understood each other better. This isn't fantasy football you don't just switch up majority of your team and expect immediate success hence why the Dogs are having the same issue. Especially with someone as unique as Api, playing next to him takes time to adjust and our attack looked lost. However, attack isn't our issue right now it's currently our edge defence and I think that should be focussed heavily next preseason if we can clean that up we can make some serious steps.
However, if this Benji era doesn't end up working out best believe heads will roll. Deservingly so.
